Young girl bitten by dog near Green Lake, police called

About 6 p.m., a man was walking near Tacos Guaymas in the 6800 block of East Green Lake Way with his nearly 2-year-old daughter. One of two Labradors tied to a metal fence bit the girl once.

The girl was taken to a hospital and had a stitch on her nose and about a 1 cm puncture, according to the report. The owner of the dog, 27, appeared upset when she found out what had happened.

An off-duty police officer reported the incident to 911, but was too distracted to get information from people at the scene. Police identified the woman, but she has not been charged in the case.

Last year, there were 16 bites by Labradors – half the number of reports there were a decade ago, according to Seattle Animal Shelter statistics obtained by seattlepi.com.

Of all breeds, pit bulls were most likely to bite, according to shelter officials — 547 of 2,914 reported incidents between 1997 and last year. They also were identified in fully a quarter of menacing incidents during that time period — 1,066 of 4,189.

German shepherds and Rottweilers also had relatively high numbers.

But shelter statistics also show the number of overall dog bites decreased by more than half in 2008 from the previous year.

Here’s a graph show the number of bite and menacing reports involving Labradors.